Dr Baruwa's reason of having canal knowledge of his friend's daughter.
For nine days, Shola (not
real name) was in pain.
The abdominal pain she
endured felt as if a knife
got stuck in her, she told
Saturday PUNCH.
She was scared but she
had no choice but to
endure the pain since she
couldn't imagine telling
her parents the
unimaginable trauma she had been subjected to
that led to the pains she
was going through.
"How could I face
them? How could I
tell them that the
man they handed
me over to, to help
process my admission, had raped
me?" Shola said.
But then, much as she
tried, she couldn't
continue hiding her
ordeal, especially when
the pains had
become unbearable.
Shola's parents
eventually got to know
what their daughter had
passed through in the
quest of trying to
become an undergraduate.
Eighteen-year-old Shola
is one of the numerous
hopeful candidates,
wishing to secure
admission into the
University of Lagos.
But her score of 211 in the
Unified Tertiary
Matriculation
Examination fell short of
the requirement for Mass
Communication, which was her choice.
Her father, who resided
in Abesan Estate in Ipaja
area of Lagos, had done
all he could to ensure
that her daughter would
become a university student this year but all
his efforts seemed to be
futile.
"Someone told me
to send her UTME
registration number.
He checked on the
university website
and said she was not eligible.
Not
convinced, I went to
the school myself to
check and it was the
same problem.
I had to start
making calls to
other universities
where she could
secure admission and
someone told me she they could be
helped to gain
admission into the
Olabisi Onabanjo
University with that
score.
"As soon as the
UTME result was
released around
May, I informed a
friend of mine who
lives within the estate, who is a
lecturer at UNILAG. I
took my daughter
to him and he
promised that when
it was time for the post-UTME
examination, he
would help her out
with the process." The friend Shola's father
mentioned is Dr. Akin
Baruwa, a lecturer in the
Department of
Accounting, UNILAG,
who is also a chairman of one of the community
development
committees of Abesan
Estate.
Shola's father explained
that when she realised
that her result was not
being accepted as eligible
for Mass Communication,
he went back to Baruwa on July 22, 2015 and the
lecturer told him to bring
his daughter the
following morning so he
could take her to campus
and see how he could help.
"He said they had to
take off very early
the following
morning.
I did not
suspect anything
unusual about that timing because I
trusted him. By 4am,
I roused my
daughter. We
prepared and I took
her to Baruwa's house.
I did not opt
to follow them
because I trusted
him. I did not
imagine that
anything untoward could happen," he
said. Baruwa and Shola took
off from Abesan about
5am.
She would later
return home by 11am.
His daughter was
noticeably moody as she came home. Two hours
earlier, Baruwa had
called the father and told
him that he had done all
he could but that it did
not seem her admission would be possible. "When he told me
that, I believed he
had done all he could
and told my
daughter to come
back home," he said.
But it was not the same
Shola that home that
came back.
She was
moody and noticeably
quiet. She went straight
to her room and locked the door.
In company with child
rights activist, Mrs.
Esther Ogwu, whom the
case was reported to by
the family, PUNCH spoke
with Shola in private to give details of what
actually happened in
Baruwa's office that day.
It was obvious the girl
was trying hard to stay
composed. While she
spoke, her right hand
would go to her lower
abdomen occasionally.
When asked about it, she
explained that she was
still feeling some pain,
which had reduced a lot
since she got treatment.
Shola said on Thursday,
July 23, 2015, as her
father handed her over
to the lecturer, she still
did not suspect anything
until they got to around Maryland.
"While I was inside
the car, he started to
touch my hair and
rub my head. I was
very surprised and I
brushed off his hand.
He never tried
it again till we got
to UNILAG," Shola
alleged. According to her, while
they were on the way,
Baruwa was showing
her different parts of
town, telling her about
places she did not know.
She alleged: "While we were on
the way, he asked if
I go out at all and I
told him I don't
usually go out.
And
he would show me a place and say 'This
is Maryland o. You
may not know since
you don't go out.
'
Then he took me to
the Yaba College of Technology. He
drove inside and
showed me the
place.
We later
proceeded to
UNILAG.
When we got to his
office, it was about
6.30am.
The offices
in the building were
deserted. He said he
liked to be early to avoid traffic.
He told
me to sit on the
couch in his office. I noticed he was
restless. He would
stand and go outside
sometimes.
He asked
if I wanted
anything, I told him I was fine. He put on
the television; I told
him I was okay.
He
put on the air
conditioner and I
told him I did not want that. He had already
heated water and
made Coffee, which
he offered to me.
I
told him I was okay
and really did not need that. He then
put the hot Coffee
on the table. Later,
out of respect, I
took the cup and
sipped a little.
I started to feel
drowsy not long
after that.
I did not
know why." According to Shola's
narration, Baruwa later
took her to see a female
official in another
building who examined
her documents and explained further that
there was little that
could be done on her
admission. Baruwa reportedly said
she might have to opt
for diploma.
Shola claimed that when
they went back to his
office, the lecturer kept
her document on his
table.
She said: "He kept standing and moving around
the office. Later, he
went outside and
when he came back
inside, he locked the
door and kept the key on his table.
I
did not know what
was happening. A moment later, he
told me to pick up a
paper for him beside
the couch.
As I bent
down to pick up the
paper, he pushed me into a corner of the
couch and held me
down as he forcibly
removed my
trousers and
underwear.
" PUNCH asked at this point
if Shola made any
attempt to shout to alert
anybody nearby.
She claimed that she
actually screamed but
that the way he held her
down did not allow her
voice to be as audible as
she had wanted it to be. Shola claimed: "If people were around the office,
they would have
heard me shout.
He
held me down, and
pulled down my
trousers and underwear. I
screamed and
begged him to leave
me alone but he did
not.
After he had his
way, he released
me.
As soon as I
pulled up my
trousers, I grabbed
the keys to the door and rushed out
while he was
dressing up. He was
walking behind me
as I walked
downstairs from his office.
He said
nothing as I walked
away crying. He
later went back.
" Shola's father said he had
been able to secure a
place for her to write her
post-UTME examination
for an admission into
OOU but the young girl has refused to go. When Shola was asked
why she refused to go,
she said: "How can I be sure that this same thing
would not happen
there? I don't know
anybody there.
If it
happens again,
where would I run to?" PUNCH tracked down Dr.
Baruwa a day after
speaking with Shola and
he gave his version of
the encounter. According to him, he
indeed had a sexual
encounter with Shola
but it was "consensual." The lecturer, who
seemed to be in his early
40s, said he made the
mistake of not doing
enough to resist the
temptation of 'sleeping' with Shola.
Speaking in the front of
his house out of earshot
of his wife and two
children, Dr. Baruwa said: "I swear to God that the girl agreed
to everything that
happened.
She was a
chatty girl, who did
not show any
shyness. It is true that I took
her to YABATECH
and showed her
places. What is not
true is that I
deliberately took off from home
because of any plan
to do anything bad
to her. I took off
from home that
early to avoid traffic. When she was in my
office, she was the
one telling me to be
free with her. I
realised that I
needed to lie down a little and did not
want my shirt to be
rumpled. When I
pulled it off, she
even told me not to
mind her presence that since it was my
office, I could do
whatever I wanted. When we first got
to the office, she lay
on my chest and
was even playing
with my manhood.
That was why I could not resist it.
After we came back
from seeing the
woman who was
supposed to help
with her admission, she was about to go
when I told her to
give me a hug.
It
was that which
now led to the
actual sexual encounter. When I realised that
I could not resist
her, I had to tell her
to let me put on a
condom. The truth is
that, while I was putting on a
condom, she stood
by and waited. I did
not actually
penetrate. When she
was saying 'it's enough, it's enough'
and complaining
that her tummy had
started hurting her,
I stopped." Baruwa explained that
Shola's father had sent a
cryptic text message to
him (days later when he
learnt of what happened
to his daughter), saying that he had learnt of
what he did to his
daughter. "I know I betrayed
his trust but nobody
would understand it
was consensual. I
would have reached
out to him to beg him if I think it
would solve the
problem," he said. When told that Shola
went through more than
a week of excruciating
abdominal pain, Baruwa
explained that if Shola
left him the day of the encounter with any sign
of hurt, he would have
reached out to her to
find out how she was
doing. Two days after this chat
with Baruwa, he was
arrested by the police
and the case is being
investigated at the
Isokoko Police Division, Agege, Lagos. The case has also been
reported at the Office of
the Public Defender
under the Lagos State
Ministry of Justice. The
Director of the OPD, Mrs. Omotola Rotimi, said the
case would be followed
to its logical conclusion. Director of the Esther
Child Rights Foundation,
Esther Ogwu, a social
worker handling the
case, said when the case
was first reported to her, the health of the girl
was her immediate
concern. She said: "I had to refer them to the Mirabel Sexual
Assault Referral
Centre in Lagos so
that she could get
comprehensive
treatment. This case is just another
reason for girls and
young women to be
cautious of the issue
of sexual assault. I believe this
lecturer had been
doing this in the
past. It is necessary
for girls to be aware
and know what to do when in a
potentially
dangerous situation
where they may be
assaulted. I don't expect him
(the lecturer) to
admit that he raped
her. I knew he
would say it was
consensual, but I suspect that this is
not the first time he
would do such
thing. Let the law
take its course
because we don't know how many
other girls are being
saved because this
case is coming out to
the public." Baruwa was arraigned
before an Ikeja
Magistrate's Court, Lagos
on Thursday. He has been
remanded at the Kirikiri
Prison.
real name) was in pain.
The abdominal pain she
endured felt as if a knife
got stuck in her, she told
Saturday PUNCH.
She was scared but she
had no choice but to
endure the pain since she
couldn't imagine telling
her parents the
unimaginable trauma she had been subjected to
that led to the pains she
was going through.
"How could I face
them? How could I
tell them that the
man they handed
me over to, to help
process my admission, had raped
me?" Shola said.
But then, much as she
tried, she couldn't
continue hiding her
ordeal, especially when
the pains had
become unbearable.
Shola's parents
eventually got to know
what their daughter had
passed through in the
quest of trying to
become an undergraduate.
Eighteen-year-old Shola
is one of the numerous
hopeful candidates,
wishing to secure
admission into the
University of Lagos.
But her score of 211 in the
Unified Tertiary
Matriculation
Examination fell short of
the requirement for Mass
Communication, which was her choice.
Her father, who resided
in Abesan Estate in Ipaja
area of Lagos, had done
all he could to ensure
that her daughter would
become a university student this year but all
his efforts seemed to be
futile.
"Someone told me
to send her UTME
registration number.
He checked on the
university website
and said she was not eligible.
Not
convinced, I went to
the school myself to
check and it was the
same problem.
I had to start
making calls to
other universities
where she could
secure admission and
someone told me she they could be
helped to gain
admission into the
Olabisi Onabanjo
University with that
score.
"As soon as the
UTME result was
released around
May, I informed a
friend of mine who
lives within the estate, who is a
lecturer at UNILAG. I
took my daughter
to him and he
promised that when
it was time for the post-UTME
examination, he
would help her out
with the process." The friend Shola's father
mentioned is Dr. Akin
Baruwa, a lecturer in the
Department of
Accounting, UNILAG,
who is also a chairman of one of the community
development
committees of Abesan
Estate.
Shola's father explained
that when she realised
that her result was not
being accepted as eligible
for Mass Communication,
he went back to Baruwa on July 22, 2015 and the
lecturer told him to bring
his daughter the
following morning so he
could take her to campus
and see how he could help.
"He said they had to
take off very early
the following
morning.
I did not
suspect anything
unusual about that timing because I
trusted him. By 4am,
I roused my
daughter. We
prepared and I took
her to Baruwa's house.
I did not opt
to follow them
because I trusted
him. I did not
imagine that
anything untoward could happen," he
said. Baruwa and Shola took
off from Abesan about
5am.
She would later
return home by 11am.
His daughter was
noticeably moody as she came home. Two hours
earlier, Baruwa had
called the father and told
him that he had done all
he could but that it did
not seem her admission would be possible. "When he told me
that, I believed he
had done all he could
and told my
daughter to come
back home," he said.
But it was not the same
Shola that home that
came back.
She was
moody and noticeably
quiet. She went straight
to her room and locked the door.
In company with child
rights activist, Mrs.
Esther Ogwu, whom the
case was reported to by
the family, PUNCH spoke
with Shola in private to give details of what
actually happened in
Baruwa's office that day.
It was obvious the girl
was trying hard to stay
composed. While she
spoke, her right hand
would go to her lower
abdomen occasionally.
When asked about it, she
explained that she was
still feeling some pain,
which had reduced a lot
since she got treatment.
Shola said on Thursday,
July 23, 2015, as her
father handed her over
to the lecturer, she still
did not suspect anything
until they got to around Maryland.
"While I was inside
the car, he started to
touch my hair and
rub my head. I was
very surprised and I
brushed off his hand.
He never tried
it again till we got
to UNILAG," Shola
alleged. According to her, while
they were on the way,
Baruwa was showing
her different parts of
town, telling her about
places she did not know.
She alleged: "While we were on
the way, he asked if
I go out at all and I
told him I don't
usually go out.
And
he would show me a place and say 'This
is Maryland o. You
may not know since
you don't go out.
'
Then he took me to
the Yaba College of Technology. He
drove inside and
showed me the
place.
We later
proceeded to
UNILAG.
When we got to his
office, it was about
6.30am.
The offices
in the building were
deserted. He said he
liked to be early to avoid traffic.
He told
me to sit on the
couch in his office. I noticed he was
restless. He would
stand and go outside
sometimes.
He asked
if I wanted
anything, I told him I was fine. He put on
the television; I told
him I was okay.
He
put on the air
conditioner and I
told him I did not want that. He had already
heated water and
made Coffee, which
he offered to me.
I
told him I was okay
and really did not need that. He then
put the hot Coffee
on the table. Later,
out of respect, I
took the cup and
sipped a little.
I started to feel
drowsy not long
after that.
I did not
know why." According to Shola's
narration, Baruwa later
took her to see a female
official in another
building who examined
her documents and explained further that
there was little that
could be done on her
admission. Baruwa reportedly said
she might have to opt
for diploma.
Shola claimed that when
they went back to his
office, the lecturer kept
her document on his
table.
She said: "He kept standing and moving around
the office. Later, he
went outside and
when he came back
inside, he locked the
door and kept the key on his table.
I
did not know what
was happening. A moment later, he
told me to pick up a
paper for him beside
the couch.
As I bent
down to pick up the
paper, he pushed me into a corner of the
couch and held me
down as he forcibly
removed my
trousers and
underwear.
" PUNCH asked at this point
if Shola made any
attempt to shout to alert
anybody nearby.
She claimed that she
actually screamed but
that the way he held her
down did not allow her
voice to be as audible as
she had wanted it to be. Shola claimed: "If people were around the office,
they would have
heard me shout.
He
held me down, and
pulled down my
trousers and underwear. I
screamed and
begged him to leave
me alone but he did
not.
After he had his
way, he released
me.
As soon as I
pulled up my
trousers, I grabbed
the keys to the door and rushed out
while he was
dressing up. He was
walking behind me
as I walked
downstairs from his office.
He said
nothing as I walked
away crying. He
later went back.
" Shola's father said he had
been able to secure a
place for her to write her
post-UTME examination
for an admission into
OOU but the young girl has refused to go. When Shola was asked
why she refused to go,
she said: "How can I be sure that this same thing
would not happen
there? I don't know
anybody there.
If it
happens again,
where would I run to?" PUNCH tracked down Dr.
Baruwa a day after
speaking with Shola and
he gave his version of
the encounter. According to him, he
indeed had a sexual
encounter with Shola
but it was "consensual." The lecturer, who
seemed to be in his early
40s, said he made the
mistake of not doing
enough to resist the
temptation of 'sleeping' with Shola.
Speaking in the front of
his house out of earshot
of his wife and two
children, Dr. Baruwa said: "I swear to God that the girl agreed
to everything that
happened.
She was a
chatty girl, who did
not show any
shyness. It is true that I took
her to YABATECH
and showed her
places. What is not
true is that I
deliberately took off from home
because of any plan
to do anything bad
to her. I took off
from home that
early to avoid traffic. When she was in my
office, she was the
one telling me to be
free with her. I
realised that I
needed to lie down a little and did not
want my shirt to be
rumpled. When I
pulled it off, she
even told me not to
mind her presence that since it was my
office, I could do
whatever I wanted. When we first got
to the office, she lay
on my chest and
was even playing
with my manhood.
That was why I could not resist it.
After we came back
from seeing the
woman who was
supposed to help
with her admission, she was about to go
when I told her to
give me a hug.
It
was that which
now led to the
actual sexual encounter. When I realised that
I could not resist
her, I had to tell her
to let me put on a
condom. The truth is
that, while I was putting on a
condom, she stood
by and waited. I did
not actually
penetrate. When she
was saying 'it's enough, it's enough'
and complaining
that her tummy had
started hurting her,
I stopped." Baruwa explained that
Shola's father had sent a
cryptic text message to
him (days later when he
learnt of what happened
to his daughter), saying that he had learnt of
what he did to his
daughter. "I know I betrayed
his trust but nobody
would understand it
was consensual. I
would have reached
out to him to beg him if I think it
would solve the
problem," he said. When told that Shola
went through more than
a week of excruciating
abdominal pain, Baruwa
explained that if Shola
left him the day of the encounter with any sign
of hurt, he would have
reached out to her to
find out how she was
doing. Two days after this chat
with Baruwa, he was
arrested by the police
and the case is being
investigated at the
Isokoko Police Division, Agege, Lagos. The case has also been
reported at the Office of
the Public Defender
under the Lagos State
Ministry of Justice. The
Director of the OPD, Mrs. Omotola Rotimi, said the
case would be followed
to its logical conclusion. Director of the Esther
Child Rights Foundation,
Esther Ogwu, a social
worker handling the
case, said when the case
was first reported to her, the health of the girl
was her immediate
concern. She said: "I had to refer them to the Mirabel Sexual
Assault Referral
Centre in Lagos so
that she could get
comprehensive
treatment. This case is just another
reason for girls and
young women to be
cautious of the issue
of sexual assault. I believe this
lecturer had been
doing this in the
past. It is necessary
for girls to be aware
and know what to do when in a
potentially
dangerous situation
where they may be
assaulted. I don't expect him
(the lecturer) to
admit that he raped
her. I knew he
would say it was
consensual, but I suspect that this is
not the first time he
would do such
thing. Let the law
take its course
because we don't know how many
other girls are being
saved because this
case is coming out to
the public." Baruwa was arraigned
before an Ikeja
Magistrate's Court, Lagos
on Thursday. He has been
remanded at the Kirikiri
Prison.
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